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Guerrilla group claims 'anti-capitalist' attack on German envoy's home

The far-leftist guerrilla group Group of Popular Fighters on Tuesday claimed responsibility for an attack in December on the home of the German ambassador in Athens, describing it as a protest against the “German capitalist machine” and ongoing austerity in Greece.

In a proclamation published on the website of To Pontiki newspaper, the group said it carried out the attack to express solidarity with Greeks whose living standards have been slashed by austerity measures. “As we sprayed gunfire at the hyper-luxury home of the German ambassador we imagined beside us the thousands of people who line up at soup kitchens... the unemployed, those working for 400 euros [a month],” it said.

The group, which also claimed an attack on the headquarters of New Democracy in January last year, said the hit on the German ambassador’s home was in memory of Dimitris Christoulas, a pensioner who shot himself in Syntagma Square in April 2012 in protest at the austerity measures.

The group also claimed to have fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the offices of Mercedes-Benz in Varibombi, north of Athens, last month. The police said it had found no evidence of such an attack.

Ending the proclamation, the group called on all guerrillas to join an “anti-European, anti-capitalist campaign of armed attacks.”